'Lowcountry Live' co-host focuses on fun

It's 8:12 a.m. and Ryan Nelson leans back in her chair and sighs.

Her choices are a dancing bear, an all-cat rock band or a hawk on the loose in a gymnasium filled with people.

It's not rocket science, she'll admit. But the video she chooses is important because it will serve as an integral part of the opening segment of that morning's "Lowcountry Live."

For the past four years, Nelson has served as co-host and producer of WCIV Channel 4's hourlong morning show that deals with everything from cooking tips to the latest in technology and what's happening in the Lowcountry.

"This show doesn't revolve around death and destruction," she says. "We want to make the hour fun."

But there was a time for Nelson, not too long ago, when things were anything but fun.

'Why me?'

Nelson grew up in Summerville, living what she calls "an idealistic life in Small Town, USA." After graduating from the College of Charleston with a degree in communications, she decided it was time to see a little more of the world, so she and her best friend, Peyton Tuthill, moved to Denver.

She got a job with the Rocky Mountain News, made some friends, fell in love with the West. Life was good.

And then on Feb. 24, 1999, everything changed. Returning home from work that evening, she found her apartment surrounded by police. Inside was the lifeless body of her best friend, who had been raped and murdered. And just like that, Nelson's life went from sheltered to shattered.

Though her initial instinct was to move back to Summerville, she forced herself to be strong. "I wasn't going to let that guy scare me into going home," she says.

She turned to writing to help her get through the pain. Her boyfriend at the time was also a big help. "Jason (Dore) was there for me at a time I felt completely alone," she says.

Though she never fully got over the horrors of Feb. 24, eventually time softened the blow, and in 2002, she and Dore made the decision to move back to South Carolina.

She wanted to become a writer; he wanted to own a kayak shop.

But before those dreams could come to fruition, Nelson got the second shock of her life. This time it came in the form of a phone call: Dore had died in a car accident.

"You can't help but start wondering 'Why me?' " she says. "You just feel like the Grim Reaper is following you around."

This time, Nelson didn't fight the urge and made the Lowcountry home again.

Love line

For the next couple of years, she took any writing job she could find. In between stints with the Charleston City Paper and the now-defunct Barfly, she did freelance work when it was available. All the while, she bartended to make ends meet.

"I didn't really know what I was doing, to tell you the truth," she says.

Eventually, she landed a gig as a traffic reporter for an independent company that was contracted by several local radio stations as well as Channel 4. It was during this time that she met her future husband. Quickly, her life began to come into focus.

Darren Goldwater, current voice of the Citadel Bulldogs and then producer for 910 AM ESPN radio, was the one who would call Nelson to set up her radio traffic reports. Though it would make for a better story if they fell in love over the phone, Goldwater will admit he had seen her once before and, "It didn't hurt that she was a good-looking blonde."

Under the guise of "just a bunch of friends going to a RiverDogs game," Goldwater got to know her better. Almost immediately, the two hit it off. During one of their subsequent evenings out, he asked Nelson the question everybody over the age of 8 is terrified of: "What do you want to do for a living?"

Nelson admitted that what she really wanted was for Channel 4 to call her up and ask her for a job.

"Darren just died laughing," she says.

But one week later, the phone rang and on the other end was then-Channel 4 News Director Perry Boxx. He wanted to know if Nelson would come in and audition for a new show he was putting together.

"I about dropped the phone," she says. "I was like, 'Who is this, really?' "

After a few minutes of convincing Nelson that he was who he said he was, Boxx managed to talk her into coming into the studio.

Three weeks later, she got the job.

The real deal

For the past four years, "Lowcountry Live" has seen co-hosts come and go: Justin Locke, Brian Goode, Mark McKinney. But the one constant always has been Nelson.

"I have an absolute blast doing this," she says. "At first, I was terrible. My hair was bad, my makeup was bad, I made mistakes. Now, it's just me being myself in front of the camera."

Just looking at Nelson you can see that she's comfortable in her own skin.

"She is a genuine person and not a TV personality," current co-host Dave Williams says of her. "She doesn't mask who she is and truly cares about locals."

Goldwater agrees: "I think that's what I love most about her. She stands up for what she believes in regardless of what other people think. That shows a strong-willed person."

But that matter-of-fact persona didn't come easily. In her 34 years, Nelson probably has dealt with more tragedy than most people experience in a lifetime.

"We all go through tough times," she says. "It's just that some people use it to better themselves, and some people allow it to hurt themselves."

Though she doesn't rule out endeavors outside the field of television in the future, for now she loves the profession she's in. But don't expect to see her anchoring the evening news anytime soon.

"I've lived the news," she says. "The last thing I want to do is report it."

Bryce Donovan is a features reporter for The Post and Courier. Reach him at 937-5938 or bdonovan@postandcourier.com.